JetBlue Loses My Luggage, Doesn't Care

Justin says JetBlue lost his family’s luggage, and ever since he’s been locked in a long, losing battle in which he’s tried unsuccesfully to get the airline to give a damn. He says he’s been met with indifference at every stage of the arduous complaint process.

He writes:

I noticed you’ve posted complaints from other JetBlue flyers in the past, so I thought I’d share my story with you. In early January, my wife, my infant son and I flew JetBlue from Burlington to JFK. When we arrived in New York, one piece of our luggage, which contained my son’s entire winter wardrobe and much of mine, was missing. The onsite staff at JFK were almost completely useless. No one appeared to have any interest in helping us to find our bag- despite the fact that is presumably the most important part of their job. We were told to follow up with baggage claim for one week and then file a formal claim should our baggage not be found. During that week we left messages daily and never received one phone call in return. When we were finally able to speak to an agent we were put on hold for several minutes and then told to try again. This did not leave us with much confidence that our bag was being actively searched for. At one point an agent told me that us we should call Burlington airport ourselves to see if they have our luggage. We had to ask this agent several times for the Burlington airport number as she wasn’t eager to look it up for us, despite the fact that we were doing her job by calling Burlington airport to locate our bag.

Once the first week was over it became clear that we needed to fill out a claim form, which we sent to JetBlue by Fed Ex and arrived by Jan 13th 2010. We were in contact periodically with our caseworker Yvette regarding the status of the lost bag (JFKB652050) and claim. Yvette told us it could take up to 45 days to get a response. During this time we regularly followed up with her by email or voice message however she never responded to any my messages either by e-mail or phone. In mid-February we called for the last time to get the status of the claim and spoke to several people, none of whom were able to give us a straight answer or gave us any confidence in JetBlue’s system. We have been very diligent in recording the conversations we have had with each individual JetBlue employee, including compiling a list of all names and their ID numbers, as well as every e-mail we have sent out. On the last call we made one agent refused to identify herself and dismissed us by saying “You will be notified when the claim is ready.” When we told her this was unacceptable, the manager, Cathy Davis, came on the line and reassured us that this matter will be resolved no later than February 22nd by Yvette. We did not hear from Yvette on that date as promised; we followed up with her on Tuesday February 23rd to inquire about the claim, and we have yet to hear back. At this point, we were not surprised, since this pattern of indifferent customer service was established early on in this process. Two weeks ago, having exhausted our options of dealing with the JetBlue system, we sent a letter to JetBlue CEO Dave Barger, copying the COO and VP-In-Flight service, which included much of the detail I’ve just laid out, and have pasted below. We have not heard back. On Wednesday, we sent a follow-up email to Mr. Barger, copying the company’s general counsel James Hnat, its corporate communications and investor relations staff. Not one person in JetBlue’s corporate suite has even acknowledged receipt of our correspondence, let alone done anything to address the issues we have described. I don’t know if others have experienced similar problems with JetBlue, but I can assure you we will never fly the airline again.

If you’ve ever lost your luggage and gotten it back, or have any tips for Justin on how to deal with JetBlue, please share.